The province will also update its Alberta Prenatal Screening Guidelines to recommend pregnant women be tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea in their first trimester, then again in the third trimester for those at high risk of STIs.

All pregnant women are already tested for syphilis early in pregnancy and again before delivery. Six cases of congenital syphilis have been reported in Alberta so far this year.

The universal screening will continue with the help of a newly created, dedicated provincial prenatal syphilis nurse position.

The changes were announced Tuesday as Alberta continues to see outbreak levels of syphilis and gonorrhea. An outbreak was declared in 2016 amid rising STI levels in Alberta.

“We are very concerned that syphilis and gonorrhea rates continue to be high in Alberta,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw, deputy chief medical officer of health with Alberta Health. “We are hard at work helping people living with or at risk of contracting an STI.”

Based on the STI cases reported so far this year, Alberta is on track to surpass last year’s numbers.

In October, the province expanded the type of STI testing available through its Test & Treat program, to include testing of the throat and rectum. STIs that infect the throat and rectum may require different treatment than infections in other sites in the body.